Monday, 14 July 2014

The Untold History of Independence Day

The Real News network did an interview with author Peter Linebaugh about what's often left out of mainstream retelling and celebration of the 4th of July. It raises some very interesting points some of which were elaborated here.

The book the Many Headed Hydra also goes into more detail and can be found here. There is also an article by the same authors by the same name with a different subheading which can be found here.

Over all I think the most interesting point relates to the reasons for independence, I don't think its much of a secret that the British Empire at the time of the Revolution at least had a generally positive relationship with the neighbouring indigenous tribes. Because of this and the stated intent of the Revolutionaries to expand further inland led to a number of those tribes siding with the British, though they made for erratic allies, they did sometimes mistakenly attack Loyalists and the Revolutionaries heavily exploited the imagery of coloured savages rampaging through white Christian villages.